KatG

Hi KatG--Thank you for offering your advice on hotels in the DC area!  I have no idea where to stay!  We are going to drive there Thursday morning and would like to spend the evening in a hotel in DC or close to it.  On Friday, we want to tour as much as we can but then need to head back to Norfolk in the evening.  We will need to drop our son off at the base and leave on Saturday so am thinking it would be smart if I could find a hotel on the way back down to Norfolk.  Trying to give ourselves as much time in DC as possible!  Does this make any sense?

Thanks!  I will check into the Marriott.  We plan on a day in Williamsburg and if the weather is okay, a day at Busch Gardens (I have a 13 year old!).  We figured we would just check out the monuments in DC since we really would only have a day and a half there.  Maybe it would be better to leave Friday evening after commuter traffic and just figure on getting back to Norfolk late?  I don't have plane reservations yet, but we do need to fly out on Saturday.  I'm hoping for a late afternoon flight.  We plan on being there five days after our son comes in--but not sure what his schedule will be like so we wanted to stay near Norfolk.  DC is some place we would love to show our daughter, but we also don't want to be away from our boy for too long.  It is a quandry!  I am hoping he will have those 5 days off (but who knows!) and then we could add an extra day in DC.  We have a hotel already in Norfolk by the water so hope they will let me be flexible if I need to change dates.  Maybe it isn't a good idea to try to squeeze DC in if traffic is really bad.  We just don't know when we will have the money to be able to fly back there again.